Santa María Purísima
by cherokeecaryl
Summary: Jasper left Maria's army without saying goodbye. After decades pass, she hears the whispers of others, and finds out about his new family. But most of all, she finds out about his mate. Maria decides it's time to visit her second in command.


**Thanks to Fashionista27 and Lonely-Soldier for being the betas for this one shot. **

**Lonely-Soldier made a banner for this one shot: i852(dot)photobucket(dot)com/albums/ab88/carlam90/SantaMaraPursima(dot)jpg It's amazing!**

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The second Alice gasped, all of the members of our family frantically rushed to where she was. Jasper was blocking our view, or their view, and I could see her face from his eyes. He was clearly worried; Alice was still unfocused.

"What do you see, Alice? Tell me!" He took her face within his hands in attempt to bring her back to the present, and it worked; it surprised me how connected they were. She looked at him with a guarded expression and then moved to face us, Jasper following closely behind her. She opened her mouth to speak with us. Well, the others, I already knew. And I didn't like it.

She looked at Jasper again when she said it. "We will have a visitor shortly," she hesitated before continuing, "it's Maria."

I suddenly felt angry, and this anger was not mine. It took me a quick scan of the minds of the rest of my family to know that they felt it, too. This was Jasper, projecting his anger without knowing it; and then one strange emotion, for a vampire, filled me. Fear.

"Jasper, please calm down," Alice commanded with worry. Jasper was still in the same spot. He didn't move a finger after those words left Alice's mouth.

Carlisle saw that it was his turn to say something, as the leader of the coven and father figure of our family. Calm and collected, he announced, "Family meeting."

His tone left no arguments. All of us headed into the dinning room, all of us except Jasper and Alice, she refused to leave Jasper's side. "Jasper, family meeting, we are expecting you. Would you please come to the dinning room?"

Carlisle and Jasper were still very formal to each other. Jasper was uncertain of Carlisle's views and opinions of him, but he was aware of his trust. Carlisle thought they should do this slowly, moving at Jasper's pace and not wanting to make him uncomfortable.

"And Alice, get down there." Alice was a different story. She smiled a genuine smile. She loved that we considered her family, like she had always been with us. She loved the trust we put in her.

Once we were in the dinning room, in our usual meeting seats, it started.

Rosalie was the first to speak, her tone dripping with seriousness and a hint of ice. "Maria. Newborn army creator, Maria? No. We cannot allow this; we do not know her intentions." Why did Rosalie always have the first word?

"I agree with Rosie," Emmett began, "why would she come here? It's not right. Jasper said that she wasn't happy when he left."

Although he had a tendency to always agree with Rosalie, he had a point; Maria was not coming here to say hello.

"Time changes things, Emmett. Maybe like the rest of traditional vampires, she is curious about our lifestyle." We all wished it could be like that, but not even Esme was sure of her words.

"Is it dangerous?" Carlisle asked Alice and Jasper. Alice said she didn't see anything bad. According to her, it was a short visit, just a day or two. I didn't want to tell my sister that her hopes were too high.

Jasper was more realistic, he had different opinions. "You don't know how she is. I can't think of a reason why she would come here. She has heard the rumours, and I can assure you that she doesn't approve."

No, she definitely would not approve. She was everything we fought so hard not to be, and we were good at it – most of us. We respected and valued human life; she thought it was food, what she was meant to kill.

"It clearly doesn't matter what we think about her visit. Alice's vision is clear. What can we do to stop it?" The question was rhetorical as I answered it before anyone spoke in response, "nothing."

"I agree with Edward. We can't stop a visitor from coming here, especially not a visitor so - well, like Maria." Carlisle looked at Jasper. "I am truly sorry, Jasper. There is nothing I can do to stop this."

"Do you want to know something extremely ironic? Maria was religious; she was born to a Catholic family in Mexico, which is why she was named 'Maria' for the Virgin Mary. She says her parents were devoted to Virgin Mary," Jasper smiled bitterly. "I told you, ironic." He excused himself and went upstairs. The family meeting was over.

"Jasper," Alice sighed and went after him.

We could hear her whispering to Jasper, and I felt bad for them. They had no privacy.

Alice threw her hands up in expression. "It is only a visit! A few days, and we can't stop her from coming here. She knows you are here, she is determined to see you, and as much as I dislike the idea of_ her_ coming here, there is nothing we can do about it. My vision is clear." She finished with a mental _never bet against me._

Jasper's voice was marked by concern and the voice of someone who didn't want to confront what was coming their way. "Yes, but what will they think? She is the symbol of my past. And they know everything about what I did." I was bombarded with Jasper's memories once again. He thought about it so much, that by this point I was sure I could recite them perfectly.

"They understand and accept your past. They are our family and that's the difference between you and Maria. You've changed and now you have a family, you have me. Isn't that enough?" She always knew what to say to Jasper.

"More than enough, more than I deserve-" He wanted to continue but Alice kissed him and he didn't complain. After that, things got more intimate and I shut them out as much as I could.

"She arrives today."

We all became tensed; we were so anxious about this particular visit. I always thought that a vampire could sense danger and today I was convinced that it was like that. From what I heard and saw in Jasper's memories, my body reacted to defend itself.

"What time?" Rosalie demanded with a harsh tone.

"One hour," Alice responded, ignoring Rosalie's harsh manner.

"She is not good at tracking; it took her three days." Emmett's calculations had no mistakes. However, he didn't consider one elemental thing about our visitor. Alice and Jasper looked at him with a serious expression. I didn't bother. "Oh, she was _hunting_. Not near, Alice?" he asked, worry apparent in his tone.

"I haven't seen any deaths or missing people in near areas," she whispered.

"The border line," Jasper began, "she always found someone on the border line; I guess she still does."

"_Are you thirsty Jasper? Remember I can always make it better, you just have to say it__.__"_

"_Please."_

That was a memory I had never seen before, but now I understood Jasper's words better. He knew it was the border line, because she had taken him there.

Emmett decided it was time to change the subject. "So, how long is she staying?" he asked curiously.

"I haven't seen for how long," she paused, "but I hope not too long." Too long was more than twenty four hours.

"She will have to be happy with the couch. Unless Edward is willing to invite her to his room," Emmett grinned, and I smiled, but not because of his comment. It was because he managed to change the subject and made the family less tense with his 'joke'.

"We have a guest room," Esme reminded everyone.

"No luck, Edward." _Someday. Don't worry. _

Alice sat next to me, placing a chess board between us. She smiled at me and thought _I'll win._

"That is not certain, the future can always change," I smiled back.

_You'll see._

"The black ones?" She nodded. "It matches your hair." I rolled my eyes and tried to mess with her hair.

"No!" she moved out of the way before I could even touch her. "Let's play."

Five minutes later she was pouting. "You let that happen!"

"No, I didn't." I did. I should've known she was not going to believe it, but I was trying to make her feel better.

_Thank you, I know you were trying to make me feel better. _"Another one."

We played until we heard movement. It was fast movement; a vampire.

Maria.

She reached the house and stopped to look at it. "A house," she said with an annoyed tone. She then started walking towards the house.

When she reached the front of the door she looked to the doorbell. "A doorbell. So _human__.__" _Now she was more annoyed.

Carlisle and Esme went to receive her with a smile on their faces. The Cullen family could win Oscars. "Welcome, Maria. My name is Carlisle Cullen. This," he gestured towards Esme, "is my wife, Esme."

She looked him directly in his eyes. Ruby stared at gold. "So it is true; your eyes are yellow. So bizarre." She gave him a forced smile, and then stepped into the house.

She saw Jasper next, "Red looks better on you."

"'Hello' would be nice after not seeing each other for years," Jasper replied with lack of enthusiasm.

"We never really said goodbye, did we?" Maria looked at Alice with expressionless eyes, but we knew better.

_I_ knew better. Her thoughts were full of hate, disgust, and surprise. Alice was not what she expected. Although she knew her physical description, she didn't know Alice was that short. She heard about her hair, but she had expected it to look horrible and out of place.

Most of all, she hadn't expected Alice to be so breathtaking – like she described it herself. "And you are Alice," she stated.

"My wife," Jasper said. Love and pride were the only feelings he had, he was ignoring the rest. In that moment, Maria decided she definitely hated Alice.

Alice looked at Maria, smiling, she said, "we finally meet."

"Finally," Maria repeated, and looked at the rest of the family.

She had very critical eyes, not even our clothes went unnoticed. "Aren't you all nice? Almost like a family," she said with a fake, sweet tone.

"Correction, we _are_ a family." For once, I approved of Rosalie's defiant personality. "I'm Rosalie."

_Blonde. I never seem to get along with those._

"Well Rosalie, you and your family are the only vampires in the world with those disturbing yellow eyes." Maria was twice as defiant as Rosalie.

"Actually, they are gold," Emmett told her with a big smile, and for a minute I was afraid he would stand up and give her one of his hugs. He didn't, thankfully. "And we are not the only ones, there are some more." His smile got bigger. "I'm Emmett." He finished, and wrapped his arm around Rosalie's waist.

"So you are all paired, all happy couples, except…" She looked directly at me.

"Edward."

"And why are you the only member in your _family_ without a mate?"

"I'm afraid I haven't found what I'm looking for yet," I explained, giving her my usual answer. I wasn't bothered by her question, every visitor asked.

She laughed. She thought it was pathetic.

"What is so funny?" Alice asked in almost a hiss. Her eyes were almost black; I could barely see the gold.

"I'd rather keep it to myself." Maria hissed back and they stared at each other.

_I don't have to be a mind reader to know! She is pushing this too far. Edward, none of us are happy about that. _Emmett was now keeping Rosalie from moving. _She's very upset. _That was odd, usually Rosalie never cared.

I focused on Alice again and saw she was still staring at Maria. The tension in the room was too much, and Jasper was beginning to cringe. That made Alice look away from Maria, and she placed her hand on top of Jasper's. He immediately relaxed.

"One thing about the Cullen's, Maria," Rosalie said, "Nothing is a secret. Edward can read minds and Alice sees the future. And, as you know, Jasper can feel other's emotions."

Maria looked at me and Alice, not believing what she was hearing. She was going to say it but me and Alice were faster.

"Believe it."

Maria's eyes widened but she didn't say anything. She just stood there, looking.

"Maria, please sit." Esme gestured to the empty chair in the room. Maria was sitting there the next second, making it clear she that wouldn't act like a human. "Tell us about your trip."

"Like any other trip," she said, bored. "So, Jasper, how did you find Alice?"

"He kept me waiting," Alice spoke instead of Jasper. "He was the first thing I saw when I woke up, and I went to look for him. It took some time, but here we are."

"Lovely." She was still looking at Jasper, and then smiled at Alice. I had no reason to trust that smile. "When did you become a vampire, Alice?"

"1919."

"Jasper was still with me in that time." _You saw him, but he was with me then._ "How old were you?"

"I can't remember," Alice whispered softly.

In that moment, Maria looked truly confused. "You can't remember?" she asked. "You must have been young, maybe twelve or-"

"Believe me, Alice was older than that when she was transformed," Jasper looked at Alice – Alice's body to be exact - longer than necessary. "I'll say eighteen or twenty."

Maria's mind was full of jealousy and hate. She knew hate, but she never thought she could hate someone like she hated Alice. Her hate became stronger every second; it intensified every time she looked at her.

The scent of human blood filled my senses and the others'. I knew that scent; it was the scent of the blonde girl who walked every day by the house, enjoying the peace and the silence. We didn't mind; she never came close, or even paid attention to the house, she was just walking.

"There is a human girl walking outside," Maria said carefully. Her thoughts were quiet now, the loud, hateful things being replaced by curiosity. She walked to the window and saw the girl.

_Blonde._

I didn't see it coming, none of us did. It was so fast and she wasn't even thinking about it.

The girl's tortured screams filled our ears; it was followed by Maria's growl. We went outside to watch the grotesque scene. Maria had the girl encased, her right arm around her body, holding it to her. Her left hand gripped her blonde, curly hair.

We could see different bite marks upon her neck, missing skin. Then, like she was tired of hearing the ear pinching screams, she pulled back and bit her again; this time managing to break her neck.

Maria dropped the lifeless body of the blonde girl and then turned to face us, but her eyes were on Jasper. All of us looked to Jasper, not knowing what his reaction would be. From his thoughts, I knew this was going to be bad.

Maria licked the blood from her lips, but crimson drops remained all over her clothes, hands, and face. The half naked corpse was surrounded by blood and pieces of the girl's dress. She made it messy and animalistic, only for the kill, not because she was thirsty.

The worst part was the flirtatious, yet evil smile she gave Jasper. "Like the old times, Jasper! Remember after we killed those soldiers and drained them? The night we had!" She closed her eyes and something close to a moan escaped her lips. "God, I can still feel it. You were so good, my Jasper."

When she said the last part, she took her eyes from Jasper to look at Alice. Her look was dark; everything about it was mocking and scornful.

The jealousy in her face was clear. She had definitely lost Jasper, if there was any hope he would ever come back to her, then Alice destroyed that with her first smile, her first look, her first words.

Alice, who always held her head high, lowered her eyes and shut them tightly, and her hold on Jasper's hand loosened. That never happened; she always held Jasper's hand as firmly as she could. They could never let go, and now because of Maria's words, it had happened. Even though I knew Jasper for a small period of time, I knew his rage could not be controlled.

"Maria." Jasper growled low and menacing, the warning was clear in his tone – "Stop what you are doing to Alice." But Maria smiled again, this time wider.

"Am I lying? You can't deny it, Jasper. It satisfied you for days." She looked at Alice again, even if Alice's eyes were still closed. "I'm sure you know how… hungry he gets. It is very difficult to satiate him fully when he gets like that."

Now I was worried for Alice, her mind was working strangely, blank spaces, fast images. Some didn't have any meaning behind it, just images.

Jasper gave Alice's limp hand a squeeze, and then walked slowly towards Maria. "Alice is my life. She gave me everything, and I will _not_ allow you to make her think she is less, when she is everything." Jasper kept walking and Maria was daring him with her eyes. "Accept it."

She was surprised; she had not expected Jasper to react that way. Her thoughts went back to his newborn days. Jasper was a difficult one, she had a hard time controlling him especially with the power he held, which was the only reason she decided to keep him; but he never acted like this before.

Jasper saw the perfect time to attack. He grabbed her arm and turned her, almost pinning her to the ground. But Maria was fast; she wrapped her free arm around Jasper's neck. Adding more strength to her fall, she made him lose his balance for a second, making him fall with her.

Faster than I had ever seen a vampire move, they stood gracefully. Maria tried to punch Jasper's face but he gripped her wrist and Maria mirrored his movement. "What happened to 'never hurt a lady'?" she growled.

"You trained me to forget that."

She glared at him, and then she smiled. I didn't trust that smile, nobody did. She smiled for all the wrong reasons.

She stared at him, with Alice's face in her mind. Jasper closed his eyes, like he was trying not to lose focus.

She was sending him different emotions to overwhelm him. She was thinking about it, the hate she felt when Jasper called Alice 'his wife', the disgust she felt when he said such a human word, and even worse when she saw the irrevocable love he had for Alice.

She thought of all the times she had him, just like she wanted. She pictured a very naked Jasper, she recalled their nights – days - together. She focused on it, the lust, knowing it was enough to weaken every man.

But she didn't stop, she thought about the blood of the girl, how good it felt when the blood touched her lips and how the burn faded away. She remembered Jasper's wild days, and their shared victims.

It scared me that it was working. Jasper could only think about hate, lust, and the last - and worst - of all, thirst. He opened his eyes and looked at the body of the girl. She was drained, but the scent remained. It was all Maria needed.

Emmett and I immediately moved to help Jasper, but Carlisle stopped us. "No. This is about Jasper, we can't get involved in this, we don't have the right. The only person who can do that is Alice."

But Alice was not moving, and her thoughts were fast, almost too fast to understand. What I did see, was Jasper and Maria, and mostly she was repeating Maria's previous words. She was trying to not think about it, about _her_ Jasper as Maria's, but she was failing. She replaced herself with Maria, creating images of Jasper groaning, but not for her. In every image, Jasper had red, cruel eyes.

The next second, Jasper was pinned to the ground; Maria had one knee pressed in the middle of back, the other holding his right arm. His left arm was held in a strong grip of her hand and his head was pushed back with her other hand. In that moment, Maria's thoughts became sadistic. She was considering whether to kill Jasper, or just make him suffer for a few minutes, what would be more torturous.

She didn't have the time to make a decision.

Alice was right behind Maria, dragging her away from Jasper by the hair, and dropping her to the ground, far from Jasper. When she turned away, Maria got up and before she could do anything, Alice turned again and kicked her so hard in the chest, Maria landed on the edge of the wood.

Jasper was impressed, and that was not even close. He had never seen Alice behave so violently. A part of him liked it, seeing her with so much strength and power. Alice went to where he was and smiled down at him. He got up and hesitantly took her hand in his.

An infuriated growl from Maria broke the connection of their eyes, and Jasper moved protectively in front of Alice, but Alice shook her head and stood beside him once again.

"You will leave, right now, and never come near us orour family again," Jasper ordered.

Maria's eyes went from Jasper to Alice, then to us. All of us were giving her a menacing stare, and in that moment Maria knew that it was better for her to turn and run. She also knew that she had lost him, forever. She would never see Jasper again.

She turned, without a goodbye, just like she said earlier, and ran. For several minutes, Jasper didn't tear his eyes from the place she disappeared. For the second time in his life, he felt peace; the first time being the minute he saw Alice. Then he looked at the girl, but closed his eyes immediately, feeling immensely disgusted.

"I will take care of the body," I said, walking to where they were. Emmett began following closely behind me.

"I will help," he offered.

"I'll research who she was, and help Esme." Alice looked at Rosalie with a confused expression. "We will have to leave immediately," Rosalie explained.

"Actually, Rose, we can do that in an hour. I'm affected by the scent. I need to hunt." Esme was trying to be discreet about it. Her real reason was giving Alice and Jasper privacy, even if it was so little time. I looked back- making sure they weren't looking at me- then elbowed Emmett and nodded my head to Esme. He didn't need a second hint.

"I'll go with you, Esme." Carlisle played along.

"I'm sure Emmett wants one last bear from the zone," Rosalie smirked.

"Of course, Rosie!" he replied. "I dare you and Edward, who gets the biggest one."

"I take it," both Rosalie and I accepted the dare. "But first, Emmett, the body," I reminded him. He nodded and took the girl in his arms, walking to the woods.

"You know, you couldn't be more obvious," Jasper shouted behind Emmett.

Alice hid her face on Jasper's chest and laughed nervously. We pretended we didn't hear him and made our way to the woods.

Looking within their minds, I saw how they walked hand in hand to the house. Both left behind the previous events, silently thanking one another for having each other.

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**Thank you for reading!**


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